8.5 Canal Student Housing Apartments

Construction of a eight-story, 160-unit, 546-bed student housing project in downtown Richmond adjacent to the VCU Monroe Park campus under an aggressive 14-month schedule. The project includes ground-floor retail space along Canal and 195 parking spaces.

The structure for the 283,000 sf project is comprised of six stories of cold-formed steel framing atop two floors of a cast-in-place concrete parking structure. The building is clad in a combination of masonry veneer, thin-brick panels, fiber cement panels, metal siding, and aluminum windows and storefronts. Mechanical systems include high-efficiency electric split-system heat pumps with packaged roof-top make-up air units incorporating energy recovery wheels.

Of the 160 units, 108 would have four bedrooms. In addition, the complex would have 12 one-bedroom units, 18 two-bedroom units and 22 three-bedroom units.

The complex also includes a clubhouse, a fitness center, indoor bicycle storage and interior courtyards featuring elaborate hardscaping, landscaping and site furnishings.

The project is designed and constructed to achieve LEED certification by achieving points related to brownfield redevelopment, energy efficiency, regional production and recycled content of materials, high-reflectivity roofing, diversion of construction waste and other sustainable design and construction methods.